Doctor Who

Sometime during the summer before high school, I was sitting at the kitchen table with my mom late one Sunday night. I had recently returned from a three week church choir tour of Europe. While passing PBS on the TV, we started watching what looked to be a British science fiction show of which I had a minimal awareness. It was called Doctor Who.

Fortunately, the episode was the excellent "Ark in Space" and from that moment I was a Doctor Who fan. I have watched it on and off over the years and have always enjoyed it. When the show was revived in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, I didn't catch many episodes, but it looked like a successful reinvigoration.

A few weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon, I started watching an episode of the latest Doctor, David Tennant, and Rachel came in and started watching with me. She liked it, so we started recording both Tennant and Eccleston episodes. Now we watch several episodes each week, catching up. It's been great fun. I hope that when we finish all the new episodes, we'll go back and watch the Tom Baker episodes.

A couple of weeks ago, we caught the Tennant episode entitled "Blink". It's a very atypical episode, featuring the Doctor only fleetingly. To describe the plot is to spoil it, but I will say that it was completely brilliant. Surprising, funny, sad, poignant and very creepy. The writing was incredible and among Doctor Who fans it seems to have become an instant classic.

"Blink" is on a few times over the next week. If you have BBC America on cable, you should definitely try and catch it. I can't recommend it enough. The schedule of upcoming showings is below.

• Sat. March 29, 7PM - BBC
• Sun. March 30, 2PM - BBC
• Sat. April 5, 6PM - BBC

I mentioned the church tour of Europe above because my host family in England was named Pertwee. While we were in London, our group was treated to a party at the estate of a popular English actor who was a relative of my host family. I didn't know it at the time, but I attended a party at the home of Jon Pertwee, the third Doctor Who.

Benfinger

While I was watching television with Rachel and her friends last night, my son Ben was on the computer in the other room. He kept laughing loudly and then suddenly showed up at my elbow asking me to come look at something he had found on the Internet.

A couple of months ago, Ben discovered Google Earth and then Googling. He likes to look at weird geographic features, cities and countries he's heard about (especially Dubai), and our house. He usually Googles Star Wars and TV shows he likes. He loves YouTube videos made from Star Wars video games. Lately, he's been watching the Large Marge scene of "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" over and over.

So last night I go in to see what he's excited about with a warning that I don't want to see Large Marge again. He pulls up Google and types in "Crocodile eating someones head". Yes, that's right.

He doesn't get the hit he's looking for, so he tries some other combination. He then finds the video that's been cracking him up. It's of some circus performer in Asia who's got a trained crocodile. He has the croc open its mouth and after demonstrating that whacking it in the head won't make it close its jaws, he sticks his hand in. The croc decides he's had enough and bites down on the guy's arm. Chaos ensues, and Ben is laughing hysterically. (At the end, the guy doesn't appear to be seriously injured.)

Ben then shows me another similar video, this one involving a guy sticking his head into a croc's open jaws. "Shockingly", the croc bites the guy's head. This is also apparently really, really funny.

This incident has made it clear to me that that Ben is heading towards some sort of career in Super-Villainy. His crocodile tank will be designed to tear James Bond to bits. I hope he figures out some way to keep Bond from just running on the backs of the crocs and out of the tank. Maybe we'll talk about that tonight.

If he's going to be a Super-Villain, I'd prefer he be a successful one.

Sacrifice

By now, you've probably seen this familiar story about the parents who didn't take their 11 year old daughter for medical help when she was showing terrible symptoms from a treatable form of diabetes. After they prayed over her for days, she died. Sadly, this type of thing happens quite frequently among believers.

Obviously, it's a terrible tragedy that this poor innocent young girl is dead. And it's a lesser tragedy that these parents blame their own "lack of faith" on the fact that god didn't heal their daughter. I imagine that as she lay dying the daughter also felt guilty about her own "lack of faith" and blamed herself for not being healed by god. Horrible.

I think that much of this needless suffering and death can be laid specifically to one story in the Bible, the binding of Isaac by his father, Abraham. The story is generally regarded as recounting a test of Abraham's faith by god who orders Abraham to sacrifice his son. An angel stops Abraham just as he's about to kill Isaac. Abraham has passed the test.

Quite often people who take the Bible literally read the story of Abraham and Isaac and apply it to their own lives. If the "test of faith" is a simple problem, there's usually not much harm in them finding god's hand in their suffering. But when they believe god is testing their faith by making one of their children ill, tragedy often results.

The ironic thing is that these parents blame their own lack of faith when in fact, they passed the test better than Abraham. They had so much faith in god that they accomplished their own awful, terrible sacrifice.

Foundation and Empire

If you don't find this scary, you're just not reading very carefully.

The Foundation

Ivanwald, which sits at the end of Twenty-fourth Street North in Arlington, Virginia, is known only to its residents and to the members and friends of the organization that sponsors it, a group of believers who refer to themselves as “the Family.” The Family is, in its own words, an “invisible” association, though its membership has always consisted mostly of public men. Senators Don Nickles (R., Okla.), Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), Pete Domenici (R., N.Mex.), John Ensign (R., Nev.), James Inhofe (R., Okla.), Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), and Conrad Burns (R., Mont.) are referred to as “members,” as are Representatives Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), Frank Wolf (R., Va.), Joseph Pitts (R., Pa.), Zach Wamp (R., Tenn.), and Bart Stupak (D., Mich.). Regular prayer groups have met in the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense, and the Family has traditionally fostered strong ties with businessmen in the oil and aerospace industries. The Family maintains a closely guarded database of its associates, but it issues no cards, collects no official dues. Members are asked not to speak about the group or its activities.

The Foundation or "The Family" is basically a society of theocrats who want to establish "Jesus'" rule over America. In operation, it sounds a lot like Fight Club. They've had the ear of every President for decades and the group includes mass-murdering dictators from around the globe. Hillary Clinton is one of their few female members.

Here's a follow up interview by the author.

The goal is an "invisible" world organization led by Christ -- that's what they aspire to. They are very explicit about this if you look in their documents, and I spent a lot of time researching in their archives. Their goal is a worldwide invisible organization. That's their word, and that's important because it sounds so crazy.

What they mean when they say "a world organization led by Christ" is that literally you just sit there and let Christ tell you what to do. More often than not that leads them to a sort of paternalistic benign fascism. There are a lot of places that they've done good things, and that's important to acknowledge. But that also means they might be involved with General Suharto in Indonesia and if that means that God leads him to kill half a million of his own citizens then, well, it would prideful to question God leading them.

Scary stuff indeed.

Misunderstanding Movies

I was reading movie reviews and discussion over at Roger Ebert's page and came across this letter opining on "No Country for Old Men". The letter-writer is offering the idea that the unemotional, unstoppable killing-machine in the movie, Anton Chigurh, is an atheist. He then makes this ridiculous conclusion.

I see it [the book, "No Country for Old Men"] as a modern classic, a deep meditation on the natural conclusion of atheism (the recklessly craven positioning of self for purposes of survival) and the believers who dare to exist for causes outside of self, an endeavor that "No Country" makes clear is noble indeed but corrosive to the soul.

Huh? Here we have yet another person who doesn't seem to understand what atheism is. The only "conclusion" of atheism is a lack of belief in any gods. That's it. Atheism says nothing about the positioning of self for survival or even if personal survival is a positive, worthwhile goal. Atheism no more says anything about these issues then does a lack of belief in unicorns.

And the condescending "believers who dare to exist for causes outside of self" is just insulting. Non-believers can and do exist for selfless causes every day. Better to exist for actual causes than to make one's cause kissing up to an unproven, fickle, invisible sky-god handing out golden tickets allowing you the privilege of an eternity of worshipping him.

Just another day in America.

Intelligent Design's hypocrisy

If you've been following the Intelligent Design circus, you know its proponents have created and are promoting a movie called Expelled, hosted by Ben Stein. It purports to be about academic censorship by the evil "Darwinist" cabal who can't compete in the world of ideas with the ID geniuses, and so must censor and quash their colleagues in the name of promoting atheism and Darwinism. (Of course, why the movie includes a great deal of Nazi footage is beyond me. If the movie is about an academic debate, linking evolution to Nazism is a complete non-sequitor.)

Of course, it's all a load of hogwash. If the ID "scientists" were promoting actual science and proposing actual hypotheses, testing these hypotheses, and producing actual results, the results would speak for themselves. Alas, there is no research being produced by the ID crowd.

When they were making Expelled, the moviemakers lied about their intentions to several actual biologists in order to interview them, hiding the creationist, oops, anti-evolution intent behind their movie. These biologists included Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers.

Last night, the producers of Expelled held a free preview showing in Minnesota. To see the show, you had only to register in advance. PZ Myers, his family and guests registered to go and were in the theatre last night. Somewhat disturbingly, but also hilariously, one of the movie's producers recognized Myers (he is in the movie, after all) and had security throw him out! His family and guest were allowed to attend.

Who was the guest? Richard Dawkins.

The complete story is here.

The followup is here.

These ID guys aren't just intellectually bankrupt, they're hypocrites of the highest order.

The War Heats Up

Holy crap! Another attack on America in the War on Manta-terror!

Stingray leaps into boat and kills woman

It looks like the rays are winning this war. What with our troops locked in Afghanistan and Iraq, we haven't been able to focus our resources on this fishy, bat-esque menace. There have been three fatal stingray attacks within the past year. And yet the Administration continues to go on about those Al Qaeda posers.

Priorities people!

Ripped her a new one, they did

Wow.

Woman Goes for Leg Operation, Gets New Anus Instead.

The woman woke up to find she had been mixed up with another patient suffering from incontinence who was to have surgery on her sphincter.

So does she now have two anuses? That would certainly save time. Or if they merely "fixed" her already working bunghole, that would, what, give her some sort of super anus?

Either way, I don't see why she has a problem.

Uh . . . thanks?

Over the weekend, a young woman, an aspiring actress and model, was murdered in her apartment in Santa Monica, California. As usual for this kind of crime, it's a sad story of a promising life cut short. Among the details of her life, the paper included that she had a Yorkshire terrier named GiGi.

I don't mean to make light of any of this, but to demonstrate how awkward people can be in these types of situations and how people just don't know what to say, here are the comments from her neighbor.

"She was a very lovely, young girl, and the dog was as lovely as she was," a neighbor, Tom Baxter, 59, told the newspaper.

Yeah.

Uh, Tom? You probably should have stopped after the word "girl".

This is actually pretty generous

If you're one of the suckers people who bought now defunct HD DVD players or discs from Best Buy, you're not out of luck. Best Buy will give you $50 gift cards in compensation!

Electronics retailer Best Buy Co. said Wednesday it will give gift cards to customers that bought HD-DVD players or HD-DVD attachments from its U.S. stores as the format goes away in favor of the Blu-ray standard.

Best Buy said it will give a $50 gift card for each item, which will likely lead to the distribution of more than $10 million in U.S. gift cards.

This follows Circuit City which is allowing its customers to return HD DVD players.

Check out the details here.

Great Speech

Barack Obama gave a speech on race and the election this morning. It was awesome.

Transcript

Given the level of political discourse we've gotten accustomed to and the poorly developed speaking skills of the current administration, this level of sophistication, intelligence and style in conveying ideas is almost shocking. Let's hope the words aren't in vain.

America, a shining beacon of human rights

This post won't tell you anything you don't already know. But I thought I should make the contradiction and hypocrisy completely transparent.

“This government does not torture people,” President George W. Bush, Friday, October 5, 2007.

"This is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe," the president said. Saturday, March 8, 2008.

In the second quote, he's referring to his veto of a bill that would ban waterboarding, a type of TORTURE, which the administration has admitted they've used in the past.

So, the U.S. doesn't torture. Except when we do. And we won't outlaw torture because we might want to do it again.

Absolutely shameful. How far we have fallen.

Go Ask Alice

I have adult-onset diabetes. It was diagnosed a couple of years ago and I keep it under control by diet and medication. I get tested regularly and my blood sugar numbers have been excellent. So, at most, diabetes has been a slight annoyance, and not a major life-changing event.

For the past few months, I have experienced frequent burning sensations in the soles of my feet. After some testing, my doctor believes diabetic neuropathy is the likely culprit. This is a bit odd since my blood sugar is not a problem, but I can't deny the symptoms. So, starting tonight, I'm adding Cymbalta to the numerous medications I already take. Hopefully, it will relieve the burning. Also hopefully, my hair won't fall out.

In other news, Cymbalta is an anti-depressant, so maybe I'll be in a good mood all the time. That would be pretty cool.

The Final Frontier

I grew up during the last few years of the Apollo missions. In grade school, they brought a TV into the room to watch one of the moon launches. I used to write to the various NASA locations (Cape Canaveral, JPL, Marshall Space Flight Center) and they would send me glossy photos taken by various space probes and missions, maps and printed materials. Really, they sent me a ton of cool stuff for free. I loved space science and was seriously interested in all things related to space.

To this day, I get a buzz whenever a shuttle mission is in orbit. It just thrills me to know that men and women are working in space. Of course, since we started permanent occupancy of the International Space Station, there's been someone up there 24/7 for years now. But I find it especially thrilling when the shuttle is involved in a station construction project, adding to the size, capability and complexity of the orbiting outpost.

Tonight, a mere three weeks after the last mission landed, Endeavour is launching. Astronauts will add the first section of the Japanese Kibo orbiting laboratory and put together a robot which will aid in station maintenance. It will be the longest space station mission ever and will include five spacewalks!

And for the next 16 days, I'll be just a little bit happier, knowing they're up there, moving humanity into the future step by step.

Fantastic news for Homeopaths!

There was some important front page news all over teh Intertubes this morning.

"A vast array of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones -- have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans . . . To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe. CNN Article.

That's incredible news!

You see, according to the theory of Homeopathy, an ill person can be treated using a substance that can produce, in a healthy person, symptoms similar to those of the illness. According to homeopaths, serial dilution, with shaking between each dilution, removes the toxic effects of the remedy while the qualities of the substance are retained by the diluent (water, sugar, or alcohol). This means that the tiny, tiny amounts of these drugs in public water supplies will completely prevent the occurrence of the illnesses these drugs are designed to combat!

So, no longer will Americans be subject to headaches, mood disorders, or convulsions! Simply by drinking tap water, all major illnesses will be cured. The evil pharmaceutical companies, constantly trying to poison Americans, have inadvertently triggered their own demise as these homeopathic dilutions will end all American health problems, thus making the pharma companies obsolete and unnecessary.

How great is that?

A Wasted Opportunity

This morning, the Washington Post's daily newspaper, Express, had an article on boardgaming! What's more, it featured two good guys that I know, the creators of Wits & Wagers, Dominic Crapuchettes and Satish Pillalamarri. Wits & Wagers is one of the few party games I like, so I'm glad to see them get some well-deserved publicity for their game.

The point of the article was:

"Adults playing board games — in public? Holy Chutes and Ladders! Believe it. While Irish pub trivia nights still rule social gaming, many D.C.-area residents are hedging their bets by hauling out the old-school stuff. And they're moving well beyond Monopoly."

Sweet! Surely they'll discuss the Games Club of Maryland, or some of the many Virginia gaming groups, or the DC Gamers! We play games in public every week. In fact, the DC area is one of the biggest gaming hotspots in the entire United States.

Sadly, no. The article doesn't go into any depth on the availability of sophisticated, knowledgeable boardgame groups in this area. They focus, instead on Meetup Groups.

I admit I'm a boardgame snob. I own hundreds of games, I know what makes a good boardgame, and I play a lot. So, while I'm happy to hear that there are adults playing games, I'm disappointed that they don't seem to be playing really GOOD games; games that are superior to standard American fare. If the point of the article was to publicize the Meetup groups, that's fine. But if the point was to highlight adult boardgaming, then perhaps the reporter should have taken a better look around.

While the article gets huge kudos for mentioning Boardgamegeek, the games they discuss are rather mundane. Here's every game mentioned in the article:

Wits & Wagers
Chutes & Ladders
Monopoly
Taboo
Cranium
Scattergories
Curses
Celebrity
Werewolf
Clue
Pictionary
Balderdash
Don't Drop the Soap

Meh.

If you want to see a group of excellent, fun games that I'd recommend, check out my favorite games on the sidebar. Or click on my recent games played.

Gary Gygax

I haven't yet blogged about the recent passing of D&D creator, Gary Gygax, because I don't really have anything to add. I first heard of D&D through an article in Games magazine in the late 1970's and I was instantly desperate to play the game. And play I did, for years afterwards. This game was a huge source of enjoyment in my life.

I just saw this and had to post it. I especially like the middle guy's comment.

Anti-Vax Discussion

Below are a couple of good articles discussing the recent settlement in the Autism Omnibus case, which the anti-vax crowd are claiming validates their claims.

For background, the Autism Omnibus refers to a set of hearings before the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program regarding claims by about 5000 parents that their childrens’ autism was caused by vaccines. These claims are primarily based upon the various hypotheses that the MMR vaccine, or thimerosal in some vaccines (but not MMR), or the combination of both, is a cause of autism.

So far there have been hearings, but only one final decision. In November the US government settled one case in favor of the petitioner. This is the case those who have supported the failed hypothesis that vaccines cause autism now point to as admission that they were right all along (or at least as a means of stoking the flames of fear about vaccines.) But the US government did not admit vaccines cause autism - they conceded one case that is highly complex and not necessarily representative of any other case and cannot be reasonably used to support the vaccine/autism connection.

Neurologica

Respectful Insolence

These ads really tick me off

Obviously, abortion is a huge political issue in the United States. My position, as much as I'm willing to discuss, is that the only possible solution that could make both sides happy is the complete elimination of unplanned pregnancy. If no one needs/wants an abortion, the problem goes away.

Unfortunately, most of the "pro-life" side considers sexuality a "sin" and therefore will not get behind real sex education and birth control. The current "abstinence only" sex education curriculum they're peddling is a testament to that. That this position is incredibly hypocritical of them is par for the course.

A group interested in the issue, The Second Look Project has been buying ad space in the DC Metro system. The ads try to portray their position as reasonable and moderate. Their tagline is "Have we gone too far?" But their disingenuous ad copy clearly demonstrates that they're not moderate.

Here's one of their ads.

Huh? "Everyone agrees Roe v. Wade is good Constitutional law?" WTF? Isn't that the whole issue we've been fighting about for the last thirty-five years? At least 40% of the country DOESN'T think Roe v. Wade is good Constitutional law. This bizarre statement is certainly a "myth", but not one that ANYONE believes.

And the "fact" is even more stupid. "Pro-choice legal scholars admit its reasoning is suspect"? That must be quite some quote-mine. I daresay that pro-choice legal scholars are perfectly happy with the reasoning as were successive Supreme Courts which have continued to uphold the right to abortion. Plus, the word "suspect" implies some nefarious purpose.

Then there's this ad.

What bothers me about this is "vast majority" and "for any reason". Isn't there a sizable minority of women who believe that abortion should always be illegal? Isn't there an even bigger group who believe that there should be some restrictions on abortion? Both of those show "vast majority" to be a huge misstatement. But of course, that's the "myth".

Both of these ads throw up huge Strawmen and then knock them over with dubious "facts". Sadly, this type of behavior isn't surprising when dealing with such a sensitive issue.

I just wish we could have a rational discussion without all the spin. These ads don't add to the discussion, they're misleading and stupid.

In which I exhibit my appreciation of art

Perhaps the biggest advantage in working one block from The National Mall is that I'm within walking distance of nearly all the Smithsonian Museums. Within minutes, I can be playing tourist, checking out the new exhibits, forgetting work and relaxing.

Since the weather was spectacular yesterday and today, I took a lunchtime jaunt to my two favorite Smithsonian museums, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the National Air and Space Museum. I like them for two completely different reasons. The Sackler Gallery is an underground structure that is calming, quiet, uncrowded and contemplative. I'd love to live in a house of the same style. It also has the best gift shop of all Smithsonian Museums. The Air and Space Museum, on the other hand, is huge, wide-open, usually crowded, and loud and chaotic, but man, what cool stuff!



The Sackler Gallery houses permanent and temporary exhibits of Asian art. My favorite style of art is Japanese Ukiyo-e from the Edo period and the Sackler Gallery often features this style. The current temporary exhibit is "Edo Masters from the Price Collection, Patterned Feathers Piercing Eyes". Absolutely beautiful. Perusing this kind of exhibit is a great way to spend a lunch hour.

At Air and Space today, the highlight was not the air and space exhibits, but a temporary exhibit from the National Museum of American History which is currently closed for renovation. One of the recent acquisitions on display was a Magnavox Odyssey, the very first home video game from 1972! Holy crap, we had one of those! I imagine my mom may still have it. Had I known that it was worthy, I would have donated it to the Smithsonian long ago.

Edited to add: Credit to Martin Goldberg and Electronic Entertainment Museum (E2M) for the picture.

Thanks a lot, Ohio and Texas. :-(

Airborne doesn't prevent lying about Airborne

Airborne loses suit.

The makers of Airborne—a multivitamin and herbal supplement whose labels and ads falsely claimed that the product cures and prevents colds—will refund money to consumers who bought the product, as part of a $23.3 million class action settlement agreement. The company will pay for ads in Better Homes & Gardens, Parade, People, Newsweek, and many other magazines and newspapers instructing consumers how to get refunds.

“There’s no credible evidence that what’s in Airborne can prevent colds or protect you from a germy environment,” said CSPI senior nutritionist David Schardt, who reviewed Airborne’s claims. “Airborne is basically an overpriced, run-of-the-mill vitamin pill that’s been cleverly, but deceptively, marketed.”

But . . . but it was invented by a TEACHER! Don't you understand? A TEACHER!!!

Here are my previous thoughts on Airborne.

Thanks to Rev. Bigdumbchimp.

You will not be warned again

Note to the History Channel:

NO ONE CAN FORETELL THE FUTURE, IDIOTS. STOP PRETENDING THAT THEY CAN BY AIRING CRAP LIKE THIS: Nostradamus: 500 Years Later. WHAT ARE YOU, SIX YEARS OLD?

Morons.